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Took an interesting phone call, the day before yesterday from one of the participants in one of the theater's annual fund-raisers. This lady has been involved with this particular fund-raiser for the past 5 or 6 years, so she's a fixture now. Nobody likes her. She's 90 years old and is a constant source of frustration for everyone involved.
She doesn't remember her lines in the annual fund-raiser show, so the other actors onstage view her as a bomb, waiting to go off.
She asks dumb questions and is frequently distracted by minutae, so she drives the director (our Artistic Director) absolutely bonkers.
She complains about the program, the show, the venue, her part, everyone else's part and other ridiculous things to the point where the administrative staff of the event ignore her phone calls and are openly hostile to her, when they interract with her.
And because I have a seeminly infinite supply of patience and a soft spot for the elderly and senile, I have become her final point of contact in the theater. The only person who takes her calls and fills her requests. And she seems to know it too. She's not shy in her appreciation for me. At 90, I guess you want a few people who don't openly consider you to be a worthless bastard. And despite what I'm about to tell you about her, I'll still be kind and open to my interractions with her.
She called the theater on Wednesday to ask some questions about the upcoming fund-raiser, namely, what she'll be doing and f the theater needs some more help. (I guess she has a lot of free time at 90.) We straightened that business out and then she said, and I quote, "I tell you what, boy, I'm in a terrible mood. I could kill myself or someone else. I'm like a cup of cocoa, ready for the powder. You know what that means?"
"No, what does that mean?" I said.
"Well, it's something my mother used to say. It means that I'm hot under the collar! I'm steamed up! I'm ready to burst! And do you know why?"
"No. Why?" I asked.
"Well, it's because this country has elected a BLACK to the presidency! I can't believe it. I woke up this morning and turned on the news and that's what I saw! A BLACK is now the president! I don't know what's wrong with this country! I guess it's these young people. I guess they voted for him. Did you vote for him?"
"Um, yes I did. And I was at the rally in Grant Park last night and I'm wearing an Obama 08 t-shirt, right now. I hate to tell you this, but I'm one of the young people you're talking about." I chuckled to myself, thinking about that old adage that you never discuss politics or religion, unless you know every person in the room and what they already think. And sometimes, not even then.
"Well, I can't imagine why you would vote for him! He's BLACK! And you're in for a world of troubles, son! How long have you been in Chicago?"
"Um, I got here in 2000." I said.
"Well, you weren't here when Harold Washington was in charge, but you know how the BLACKS are just running amuck downtown? Well, that all started with Harold Washington. You let one BLACK in and they hire all the other BLACKS and then next thing you know, they just take over! That's why downtown is the way that it is! You can just imagine what the whole government will be like! BLACKS all over the place."
"Well, I don't think that will happen. I think -"
"I've been around. Once you spend 90 years or so on this planet, you get to learn a thing or to. You'll see what I mean! Why did you even vote for that guy?"
"Well, I want us out of Iraq as soon as possible. And I agree with his tax cuts for the middle class and regulation of business."
"Oh, none of those things will even happen! That's just the same old things that all politicians say! It's all lies! And if I'm going to be lied to, I'd rather be lied to by a white guy!"
We talked a little more about Iraq and how Obama promises to withdraw American troops by 2011. She offered me a bet, of one drink at the theater bar, that we will still be in Iraq in 2011. I agreed to the bet, with the proviso that we WILL probably still be there, but that our numbers will have to be significantly reduced. And because I was pretty sure that she will be dead by 2011, anyways. And you can't collect on a bet that outlives you.
But in all of that rant and the rant that followed, I never heard her mention, once, the qualifications of the other candidate. I also heard nothing from her about whether she voted or campaigned or did anything to actually affect the outcome of this election. And even if she DID vote for McCain, she did it in the worst possible county in the United States. On Tuesday, when the votes were all in, Cooke County, in Illinois was the single biggest pro-Obama county in the country. According to this map from the Washington Post, 76% of the county voted for Obama and 23% voted for McCain. A difference of 1,083,653 votes between the two candidates. And no surprise, either, as that's our home-town boy there. Of course, we came out for him.
But this lady illustrates two things pretty clearly. First, that racism, when it's blatantly displayed is cartoonishly ridiculous and not a thing to be feared. I'm not talking about the lynchings of the 60's and the Rodney King beating of the 90's. I'm talking about the articulation of the racists argument. It makes no sense, has no rational foundation, and is ultimately laughable. (Racial violence, on the other hand, is a very serious matter and should be taken seriously, because it's a form of civil violence, regardless of the motivation.) I couldn't muster up any anger for this lady, because, well, she's a harmless, inarticulate boob, who couldn't be bothered to vote her crazy-ass, ridiculous world-view.
She also illustrates a finer point that I've only recently become aware of. Racism is the providence of an older generation. And it's dying off and taking it's crazy-ass bullshit with it. There will be another election in 4 years and Obama will run against whichever mud-slinging, empty-rhetoric, puppet for big business that the Repubs choose to prop up (I'm guessing Romney) and although you won't see the tide of pro-active movement that happened this time, you'll see impassioned Americans looking to continue the agendas that they have voted into office this time, versus the aging, dying and increasingly nonexistent racist and bigoted opinions on the right and they'll get stomped again. The progressive movement is owned and pushed forth by the young generations of this country. And they simply don't have time or interest in the racist arguments of the older generations. Young blacks aren't looking for reparations for slavery and young whites aren't looking to bar civil liberties based on race (or sexual persuasion). It's a different social landscape and I think a lot of us didn't realize how different it was until last Tuesday evening.
This older lady and her baseless prejudices are irrelevant. And as much as I and the rest of the progressive movement would welcome her participation in the next great movement in this country, the thing that is holding her back, is herself. And that would be sad, if she were around long enough to actually affect anything.
Moving forward,
Mr.B
4 comments:
25 more years, and we'll start saying the same things about the LGBT crowd. We're one more generation from putting THAT one to bed as well.
My grandmother is 82 and my grandfather is 83. As they told some punk kids passing out Obama literature outside the polling place who were giving them the fish eye, "Just because we walk with canes doesn't mean we aren't voting a straight Democratic ticket." And that's in Ohio. Old people can be awesome too, and they didn't all vote for McCain.
One of the lenders here at the bank told me on Wed. with awe in her voice: Her 78 year old republican father voted for Obama... she was so proud and so very surprised!
Yeah, so is this the wrong place to note (for the millionth time) that Mr. Obama is not black? That's right, he is not a black man. He is bi-racial, or whatever term they now use to mean that. He is exactly as white as he is black. This is so irritating to me.
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